Tim Harford

speaker

476 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Jul 2026 last heard 20 Jul

Tim Harford’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.

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After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal · Britain's Worst Airship Disaster · 20 Jul 2026 podcast

And the British Empire spans the globe, but it is being controlled very much by local governors. voice-verified

Westminster, Whitehall doesn't have a great deal of direct control as to what is happening in the British Raj. voice-verified

But the idea of an airship... voice-verified

That's impressive. voice-verified

You could get to India in maybe a week, whereas a sea voyage might take a month. voice-verified

We haven't measured it. voice-verified

But that sort of thing, it suddenly feels, the world feels much smaller. voice-verified

Everything feels much closer. voice-verified

And then maybe London can exert more direct control rather than operating through these local proxies. voice-verified

It was just before lunchtime on the 14th of October 1929 when Christopher Birdwood Thompson stood up from his desk, donned his stiff Homburg hat, adding a little more to his imposing height of six feet five inches, and walked briskly up the stairs to the roof terrace. voice-verified

Lord Thompson worked on Whitehall, the street at the heart of the British government. voice-verified

To his left, Downing Street, the official residence of the Prime Minister. voice-verified

To his right, the Houses of Parliament. voice-verified

But he wasn't looking left or right. voice-verified

Like everyone else in London that day, he was looking straight up. voice-verified

Cruising low over Whitehall was the largest aircraft the world had ever seen. voice-verified

It was a long, slim, silver teardrop, an airship. voice-verified

It was enormous, 735 feet long, the size of a large Manhattan skyscraper lying on its side, hovering right over their heads. voice-verified

It was a glimpse, Lord Thompson liked to say, of the future. voice-verified

The vast airship had slowed to a leisurely 40 miles an hour to allow the crowd a better view. voice-verified

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